Many companies use the postal system as a means for delivering marketing and other information to people, such as potential customers. Such companies may send a high volume of such marketing and/or other information through the postal system. Marketing research has shown that mail bearing a postage stamp has a higher open rate than mail bearing meter-based postage indicia.
Many high-volume postage users use pre-cancelled stamps offered by the United States Postal Service (“USPS”). Pre-canceled stamps are special stamps that come in various denominations, including, for example, twenty-five (25) cent stamps for pre-sorted First-Class Mail; fifteen (15) cents for pre-sorted First-Class cards; ten (10) cents for regular standard mail; and five (5) cents for non-profit standard mail. Each denomination of pre-cancelled stamps bears a standard USPS-provided image for that particular denomination.
Mailers can buy the pre-canceled stamps at the lower rate. However, when a mail piece bearing such a pre-canceled stamp is mailed, the USPS charges the mailer the difference between what has already been paid and the amount of postage for the type of mail piece mailed. For example, if a mailer purchased a fifteen (15) cent stamp for mailing a pre-sorted First-Class postcard which requires, for example, twenty-four (24) cents postage, then when the mailer mails the pre-sorted First-Class postcard, the mailer must pay the difference of nine (9) cents between the cost of the fifteen (15) cent stamp and the twenty-four (24) cents cost for mailing a pre-sorted First-Class postcard. Pre-cancelled stamps are sold by the USPS in rolls of 500, 3,000, or 10,000 stamps. Special machines exist for high-speed application of rolls (sometimes referred to as “coils”) of postage to mail pieces. Such machines are sometimes referred to as stamp affixers.
Instead of the standard USPS-provided image on pre-cancelled stamps, some mailers may prefer to send their mail pieces with postage labels bearing custom images. For example, if the USPS approves use of commercial images and brands for use on image-customized postage labels, some commercial entity mailers may, for example, want to use customized postage labels as additional marketing for their company or their company's products or services.
Image-customized postage labels have been available to the U.S. public for some time. For example, Stamps.com Inc. provides image-customized postage labels under the name of PHOTOSTAMPS®. U.S. patent application Entitled: “IMAGE-CUSTOMIZATION OF COMPUTER-BASED VALUE-BEARING ITEMS”; application Ser. No. 10/994,698, filed on Nov. 22, 2004 and its entire contents and disclosure is incorporated by reference in full herein for all purposes as if fully stated here.
However, PHOTOSTAMPS® and other image-customized postage labels have not been available in a form useable by high-speed postage application machines. Therefore, high-volume mailers that want to use image-customized postage have not had image-customized postage labels available in a form useable by the high-speed postage application machines used by, or for, such mailers.
Further, high-volume mailers that want to purchase rolls of stamps that can be used in high-speed postage application machines have not been able to purchase quantities of such stamps other than in the quantities provided by the USPS.